China Girl (song)

"China Girl" is a song written by Iggy Pop and David Bowie during their years in Berlin, first appearing on Pop's debut solo album The Idiot (1977). The song became more widely known when it was re-recorded by Bowie, who released it as the second single from his most commercially successful album, Let's Dance (1983). The UK single release of Bowie's version reached No. 2 for one week on 14 June 1983, while the US release reached No. 10.

"China Girl"
Single by Iggy Pop
from the album The Idiot
B-side"Baby"
ReleasedMay 1977
RecordedJuly 1976 (1976-07) – February 1977 (1977-02); Château d'Hérouville, Hérouville, France;
Musicland Studios, Munich;
Hansa by the Wall, Berlin
GenreArt rock, krautrock
Length5:08 (album version)
3:26 (single edit)
LabelRCA
Songwriter(s)David Bowie, Iggy Pop
Producer(s)David Bowie
Iggy Pop singles chronology
"Sister Midnight"
(1977)		 "China Girl"
(1977)		 "Success/The Passenger"
(1977)

Original recording

Paul Trynka, the author of David Bowie's biography, Starman, explains the song was inspired by Iggy Pop's infatuation with Kuelan Nguyen, a Vietnamese woman, as a metaphor for his Stooges career.[1]

Production-wise the original recording that appeared on The Idiot is raw and unpolished compared to Bowie's hit remake in 1983.[2]

Nile Rodgers, the producer of David Bowie's 1983 version of the song, offered his own interpretation of the lyrics: "I figured China Girl was about doing drugs ... because China is China White which is heroin, girl is cocaine. I thought it was a song about speedballing. I thought, in the drug community in New York, coke is girl, and heroin is boy. So then I proceeded to do this arrangement which was ultra pop. Because I thought that, being David Bowie, he would appreciate the irony of doing something so pop about something so taboo. And what was really cool was that he said 'I love that!'."[3]

Track listing
  1. "China Girl" (Edit) (David Bowie, Iggy Pop) – 3:26
  2. "Baby" (Bowie, Pop) – 3:24

Bowie cover
"China Girl"
Single by David Bowie
from the album Let's Dance
B-side"Shake It"
Released31 May 1983
Format
  • 7"
  • 12"
  • cassette
RecordedDecember 1982
StudioPower Station, Manhattan, New York City
GenrePop rock, pop,[4] new wave[5]
Length5:32 (album version)
4:14 (single edit)
4:05 (video version)
LabelEMI America – EA157
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Nile Rodgers
David Bowie singles chronology
"Let's Dance"
(1983)		 "China Girl"
(1983)		 "Modern Love"
(1983)
Music video
"China Girl" on YouTube

Music video

The music video, featuring New Zealand model Geeling Ng, was directed by David Mallet and shot mainly in the Chinatown district of Sydney, Australia.[6] Along with his previous single's video for "Let's Dance" with the critique of racism in Australia, Bowie described the video as a "very simple, very direct" statement against racism.[7][8] The video consciously parodies Asian female stereotypes. It depicted as a hypermasculine protagonist in an interracial romance. The original video release includes the two lying naked in the surf (a visual reference to the film From Here to Eternity).[9][10] Unedited versions were banned from New Zealand and some other countries at the time.[11] The uncensored version was issued on the 1984 "Video EP" issued by Sony on Betamax, VHS and LaserDisc. Versions of the video included on subsequent video and DVD compilations (including EMI/Virgin's Best of Bowie) are censored to remove the nudity. The original video went on to win an MTV video award for Best Male Video.[12]

Reception

BBC Online reviewer David Quantick acknowledged the effect of Nile Rodgers' production on the song, arguing that "nobody but Rodgers could have taken a song like 'China Girl', with its paranoid references to 'visions of swastikas', and turned it into a sweet, romantic hit single".[13] The success of Bowie's cover reportedly led to Pop gaining financial stability via his co-writer residuals.[14]

Live performances

The song was regularly included in Bowie's live shows for the rest of the 1980s and appeared on concert videos in 1983 and 1988 – Serious Moonlight and Glass Spider, respectively. It was rehearsed for Bowie's appearance at the 1985 London Live Aid concert but was dropped due to time constraints, along with the songs "Fascination" and "Five Years". Additional live versions of the song appear on 2009's release of a 1999 performance for VH1 Storytellers, on a 2010 release, entitled A Reality Tour, recorded at Bowie's November 2003 concerts in Dublin, Ireland, and on 2018's Glastonbury 2000, recorded at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2000.

Track listing
7-inch single
  1. "China Girl" (Edit) (David Bowie, Iggy Pop) – 4:14
  2. "Shake It" (Bowie) – 3:49
12-inch single
  1. "China Girl" (Bowie, Pop) – 5:32
  2. "Shake It" (Re-Mix) (Bowie) – 5:21

Personnel

The Idiot version

Let's Dance version
Production
  • Nile Rodgers – producer

Chart performance (David Bowie version)

Certifications (David Bowie version)
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)[45] Gold 50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[46] Silver 250,000^

^shipments figures based on certification alone

Other releases

Later versions
  • James Cook – Ashes to Ashes: A Tribute to David Bowie (1998)[48]
  • Tripwires – "Under the Covers" (Compilation album) (2014) [49]
  • John Crook - Cover Ups (2019)

References
  1. "China Girl by David Bowie". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  2. Pegg 2000, pp. 382–383.
  3. "BBC Radio 2, Lost In Music: The Nile Rodgers Story". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
  4. Erlewine,Stephen Thomas. "David Bowie - Let's Dance review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
  5. Perone, James E. (7 September 2018). "Listen to New Wave Rock! Exploring a Musical Genre". ABC-CLIO – via Google Books.
  6. "Bowie's China Girl, Geeling Ng, remembers 'warm and engaging' star". Stuff. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  7. Loder, Kurt (12 May 1983), "Straight Time", Rolling Stone magazine, no. 395, pp. 22–28, 81
  8. Tam, Ruth (20 January 2016). "How David Bowie's 'China Girl' used racism to fight racism". Washington Post. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  9. Jenkins, Mark (31 December 1993). "Bowie's Changes In Single Fashion". Washington Post. Retrieved 10 May 2009.
  10. Caroline Stanley (30 March 2010). "The Evolution of Nudity in Music Videos (NSFW) – Flavorwire". Flavorwire.com. Retrieved 15 March 2014. a rather tame (and brief!) glimpse at Bowie's butt during a beach makeout session
  11. "David Bowie's 'China Girl' Co-Star Says Music Video Changed Her Life". Billboard. 13 January 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  12. "MTV Video Music Awards 1984". MTV. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  13. Quantick, David. "David Bowie Let's Dance Review". BBC. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  14. Hedegaard, Erik (11 December 2003). "Iggy Pop's Trail of Destruction". Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  15. "Forum – ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts – CHART POSITIONS PRE 1989". Australian-charts.com. Hung Medien. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  16. "Austriancharts.at – David Bowie – China Girl" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  17. "Ultratop.be – David Bowie – China Girl" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  18. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 6232." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  19. Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava.
  20. "Le Détail par Artiste". InfoDisc (in French). Select "David Bowie" from the artist drop-down menu. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  21. "Offiziellecharts.de – David Bowie – China Girl". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  22. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – China Girl". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  23. "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 27, 1983" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40 Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  24. "Dutchcharts.nl – David Bowie – China Girl" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  25. "Charts.nz – David Bowie – China Girl". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  26. "Topp 20 Single uke 25, 1983 – VG-lista. Offisielle hitlister fra og med 1958" (in Norwegian). VG-lista. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  27. "South African Rock Lists Website SA Charts 1969 – 1989 Acts (B)". The South African Rock Encyclopedia. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  28. "Swedishcharts.com – David Bowie – China Girl". Singles Top 100. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  29. "Swisscharts.com – David Bowie – China Girl". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  30. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  31. "David Bowie Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  32. "David Bowie Chart History (Dance Club Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  33. "David Bowie Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  34. "Lescharts.com – David Bowie – China Girl" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  35. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  36. "David Bowie Chart History (Hot Rock Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  37. "Rock Digital Songs - The week of January 30, 2016". Billboard Rock Digital Songs. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  38. "Ultratop Jaaroverzichten 1983". Ultratop 50 (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 26 January 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  39. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 6699." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  40. "Top 100 Single-Jahrescharts 1983". GfK Entertainment Charts (in German). Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  41. "Top 100-Jaaroverzicht van 1983". Dutch Top 40 (in Dutch). Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  42. "Dutch Jaaroverzichten Single 1984". Single Top 100 (in Dutch). Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  43. "Official New Zealand Music Chart - End of Year Charts 1983". Official New Zealand Music Chart. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  44. "Top 100 Hits for 1983". Billboard Hot 100. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  45. "Canadian single certifications – David Bowie – China Girl". Music Canada.
  46. "British single certifications – David Bowie – China Girl". British Phonographic Industry. Select singles in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type China Girl in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  47. "The Wedding Singer". IMDb. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  48. Bill Cummings (18 March 2013). "Ashes To Ashes: A Compilation of David Bowie Covers by Various Artists | God Is In The TV". Godisinthetvzine.co.uk. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  49. "Under the Covers by Various Artists". rateyourmusic.com. 14 January 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2014.

Sources

  • Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5
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